The OCZ Trifecta is a unique SD card, it features connectors for USB, regular SD and microSD at the same time. This makes the card very useful for a variety of PDAs, mobile phones and cameras because you can easily take your data with you. With a price tag of below $30 for the 1 GB version it is not too expensive as well.
The Microsoft Razer Reclusa is the second product to be released from the two companies. While it may look quite out of this world, it's functions are well placed and the Razer software rounds up the package. We take a close look at all the additional keys as well as the program behind the device and let you know if it is a steal for $60, or if we rather want to go back to our normal keyboards.
AMD's 690 Chipset Series is the first new product since the AMD/ATI merger in October last year. The RS690 is designed to be a low-cost, power efficient Athlon64 chipset which can be used in notebooks and desktop PCs. It features integrated VGA with support for HDMI and DVI - at the same time. With motherboards retailing in the $60 range this chipset has great potential on the budget market.
Soundgraph has updated their own VFD series with a new display which is not only twice as big, but one could say twice as good as well. The one aspect which did not get bigger, but in fact, smaller is its price. While the original Soundgraph VFD had a price tag of ~$100 the new Ultra Bay sells for $95. The new graphical LCD is a great choice to display any type of font, while the new buttons make navigating even easier than before. This is the display that makes any case into a home theater enclosure with some excellent software to control it.
The A-DATA Super Info SD card comes with a little LCD readout that can display volume name and remaining capacity. This is a very useful feature because it allows you to check what is on the card without inserting it into a computer. The performance of the card is good as well, transfer rates are in the 12 MB/s range with access speeds of only 1.3 ms.
The Pertelian X2040 is a multi purpose display, which can display IM messages, media information, stock and Ebay items among other things. Its software is based on an ever growing number of plugins, allowing the user to add further functionality to this LCD. The device is very well constructed and the display is quite bright. We give the display a try and set up a few plugins, to evaluate how useful such a secondary display can be.
OCZ's Dual 1GB SD-Card is a hybrid approach to giving you the optimum connectivity on an SD card. You can use the card either like any regular SD card or after removing a little cap like a USB stick. The card is rated at 80x speed which is about 12 MB/s. OCZ is selling the 1 GB version for about $40 which is a good price considered the added functionality of the product.
The Scythe Karma Meter is a drive bay device to monitor the temperature inside your case with 4 separate diodes, control the fan speed of up to four fans and set the master volume of the PC. The Kama Meter shines with perfect build quality as well as 8 different back light modes. We take a close look to see if its features are useful and temperatures are accurate.
The Scythe Kama-Thermo is a very simple, blue backlit temperature LCD display with a connected diode. The cheap price tag makes it very appealing to most case modders. It is quite small, but has large enough digits and a very good contrast so that the temperatures can be read from further away. The Kama-Thermo combines simplicity and functionality to form a great little device.
Wicked Lasers is very well known in the enthusiast laser community for making high-quality products that perform well. We test the 125 mW Fusion laser which emits a high-powered green beam that is visible for several miles without losing much of intensity. Also we test protective goggles which are designed to make sure you don't hurt your precious eyes when playing with lasers.
At Intel Developer Forum 2006 in Prague a presentation explained many of the obstacles that need to be overcome on the long way to Terascale computing. A Terascale computer is a machine that can perform one trillion operations per second, more than 50 times of what today's high-end CPUs can achieve. But Terascale is about much more than just building a CPU that can go that fast...
The Thermaltake Mozart TX case has a unique 7" drive bay which was designed for installation of this LCD screen. The LCD panel is hidden inside the case until activated, then it slides out driven by a motor. An additional feature is the integrated touchscreen which lets you use your PC just by pointing with a little pointing device on the screen. Even though its native resolution is not something that is common in the PC world, the display's great scaler can still achieve excellent video quality and well readable fonts.
Have you ever dreamed of a device that lets you connect all kinds of IDE and SATA devices via your USB port? This is what the Kama Connect does. You can connect all EIDE and SATA drives, 5.25 and 3.5", CD/DVD-ROM and HDD to it. It is even possible to connect SATA and IDE devices at the same time and use them both. With a price of only $29 this is one of the most useful USB devices ever.
Soundgraph was established in 2000 as a spinoff from Samsung. Their latest product is the SoundGraph iMON 2.4G series of remote controls. Unlike traditional infrared remotes they use 2.4 GHz wireless. The advantage of this is that it will work through walls and you don't have to point the remote at the receiver. Even though the 2.4 GHz band is used there were no problems running with an active wireless LAN nearby.
The Soundgraph iMON VFD is the perfect accessory to turn your normal PC into a HTPC. The set is made of a bright and responsive VFD with an integrated volume control and large infrared remote control. Soundgraph has produced a solid gadget and has thought out an ingenious installation system. The software is incredibly easy to set up and use. The remote enables total control over the PC, while the VFD displays much more than just song titles and PC information.
This press presentation from NVIDIA talks about the upcoming nForce 500 Series chipsets. One interesting feature is SLI Memory (EPP Memory) which has been developed together with Corsair. Another highlight is the new networking support in nForce500 which offers dual Gigabit with technology that makes you "King of Ping" and also lets you link together two GigE links. You want RAID with 6 SATA drives? That's possible with nForce 500 too.
ATI held their european Xpress 32000 launch event at Seville, Spain. While the marketing people were showing off presentations and gave out technical info, Finnish overclockers Macci and Sampsa set out to break the 3DMark05 world record using the new chipset, a pair of X1900XTX and dry ice. We bring you exclusive coverage of the nightly overclocking session.
Swiftech has always been known for their innovative cooling solutions. Today we will take a look at their 100% copper chipset cooler: the MCX159-CU. Its creative design allows for greater heat dissipation in even the tightest spaces, and on almost all motherboards. Not only does it cool well but the included 40mm fan is also remarkably quiet.
World-famous case modder Mashie has created this unique case modding accessory. It is a stereo 7-channel real-time spectrum analyzer which shows beautiful patterns on 112 LEDs. It goes into two 5.25" drive bays and does not require any additional software because it comes with its own microprocessor on-board.
Functional panels for our computers have been around for a while now, but Logisys took the standard functional panel with USB, Firewire, fan controller, and temp monitors and tricked it out one more. They created "The first remote panel in the world designed for media PC and for enhancement of all computers". The Logisys FP800BK includes almost everything you could want in a front panel device, plus you can turn your PC on and off with its handy remote!
We take a close look at VL System's L.I.S 2 Blue eye, to find out how this middle-segment LCD performs. It can display anything from fan RPM and current time all the way to CPU temperature and voltages, it can even control up to 4 fans. Have you ever caught yourself wondering what time it is in the middle of a frag fest, and couldn't risk switching back to desktop? Do you own a modded case and attend LAN Parties regularly? Then this might just be the unit you are after...
We had the honor to be the first journalists to visit Sapphire's factory where most ATI video cards are produced. This report will take you through all stages of video card production and show many interesting details on how a video card is build.
